Perspective a gift from the spectre of death for beloved Lions icon Lui Passaglia

Lui Passaglia is lifted onto his teammates' shoulders at the 1994 Grey Cup.Photo by
Arlen Redekop

As the greatest kicker the B.C. Lions have ever known, Lui Passaglia has been blessed knowing he’s been able to live the dream. It’s helped him in the battle to stage the fight of his life.

Every player would want to live out the scenario which ended when he hit the game-winning field goal to win the 1994 Grey Cup at B.C. Place Stadium, where memories will be rekindled when the Lions play host to the Montreal Alouettes Saturday. It was the same thing in 2000, when Passaglia ended his legendary 25-year career much the same way.

There are other dreams in retirement, though.

One day recently, Passaglia woke up in the middle of the night and asked himself if he had cancer and how he would deal with the dreaded disease.

“You’re wide awake thinking where did that come from and why am I thinking of this? How much time do I have left?” Passaglia said. “You think about cancer being a bad word, then you’re thinking about dying.”

It was no dream. It was real.

For almost a year, the 60-year-old Canadian Football Hall of Famer whose CFL scoring records seem invincible has had to face his own mortality; he’s been undergoing treatment after being diagnosed with stage three colon cancer.

It is a fight some family members wanted him to battle only protected by their love and support. But as he did often during his career, when he was among the players who first planted the seeds of community spirit that in many ways still define the Lions, Passaglia kept thinking about his illness and asked another question.

“How can I help someone else?” he said.

The first answer was to talk about what led to his diagnosis, simply in order to convince other men and women who fit the demographic criteria to seek a colonoscopy, as early detection can result in a 90 per cent cure rate.

The next step will be to zero in on a charitable agency he can work with to raise research funds and be part of a campaign similar to one he supported with Colon Cancer Canada this spring.

He says he is feeling close to his old self currently, other than an occasional bout of fatigue after completing his latest round of treatments a month ago, and hopes for a clean bill of health following blood work and further tests in September. He still helps as needed with the family’s Burnaby-based construction business.

But before going forward, Passaglia had to organize his thoughts in such a way that he would be able to help himself before others.

“I never thought about death, really,” said Passaglia, who then began to talk about his mortality for nearly an hour during a recent interview.

“Are you kidding me? I thought old age is going to come upon me and that’s the way I’m going to go. Now when you get this diagnosis, it kind of changes perspective on life.

“Before, you might feel sad because you’ve lost somebody dear to you, but it’s not you. It’s a totally different perspective when it’s you. When your mortality is questioned, it’s something totally different.

“You don’t think that far ahead. I’m not thinking until 80 or 85 anymore. You used to sit at the table, look at your mom and dad and think one of these days they’re not going to be there.

“Maybe I’m not going to be there.”

Passaglia first sensed something was wrong after playing in a Lions alumni golf tournament last summer but didn’t react immediately, as he had received a clean bill of health from a colonoscopy five years earlier.

He admits the diagnosis left him bewildered but not melancholy, coming to understand he has time to focus on a cause, just as he did when he supported breast cancer research or any number of initiatives during his days as a player.

And so it began. With only word-of-mouth support from fellow members at the Vancouver Golf Club, the ex-kicker helped raise $20,000 for research. There was a Colon Cancer Canada walk this spring and there will be others, Passaglia said, because he is looking to establish a fundraising model that is sustainable even longer than his playing career.

The Lions say they will be there for him.

“We’ve talked,” club president Dennis Skulsky said. “Lui has a special relationship, and we need to find some good out of this. When you think about what Lui has done for the community over the years, it’s only right that we are involved in some way.”

First, however, Passaglia is not putting off time with family as he may have done as a player, which is why he will not be with teammates of the 1994 Lions who are being inducted into the team’s Wall of Fame at halftime of Saturday’s game (4 p.m., TSN, Team 1040).

It was the ’94 team Passaglia said he used as a motivating force when he was fighting the effects of his chemotherapy, recalling how he fought back from an injury that forced him to miss five games that year to create Lions magic.

Now, time and a terrible disease can bring perspective.

“Be positive, take things a day at a time, do some things you want to do. You look at life and say if you can do things and they’re within reason, go do them if you can. I’m going to strive to do that,” he said. “There’s no use sitting here pouting.

“I used to dream I’d have another 25 years of life. You don’t think that way anymore.”

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